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Sunday, October 9, 2011

The Way of the Samurai

This fuzzy out of focus portrait has been taken countless
times by Parisian tourists. It is the Mona Lisa and
despite bad photography, has inspired artists for
centuries... and more recently your friend and blogger.

Bonjour and konnichiwa, my good friends,

If you’ve been following along in my blog, you know that I’ve been
reading a lot of French literature to get a feel for the mindset of where Paris
lives in the literary sense. I’ve read
many of the French greats (Balzac, Proust, Flaubert, Camus, Maupassant, and
Zola) and many American/English authors that have lived in and were influenced
by Paris as expats (Chaucer, Dickens, Maugham, Joyce, Beckett, Miller, and
Orwell). There are many more to read,
and many more I haven’t mentioned.

The book that has influenced me most however is one you might never
expect. Even I was surprised to find
myself a devotee of Miyamoto Musashi and his Book of 5 Rings. WTF?
You might ask. It is not literature, per se, rather than an outdated and
outmoded set of instructions for being a good Samurai. How does this help a person living in Paris
in any way?

Let me explain. Fencing has been an
interest of mine for years, but Paris has provided me with ample opportunities
to take it up and I have. Musashi explains, of course, how to become a master
swordsman. Well this makes sense, but he
also explains that a master in the martial arts, one must also partake in many
of the other arts. Musashi himself was a
great painter and his paintings are venerated more as religions icons than
works of art.

Back to Paris; is there a better city to take up the arts? I don’t think so. The way of the samurai seems more suited to
Paris than ever I might have imagined.
My fencing is improving and so with it, my ability to create art.

Here are my latest observations:

Lifestyle: I work on a computer all day and there is
term that works very well to describe someone in my profession; obese. I’m far from obese, but I did put on some
bulk earlier in the year thanks to being sick (it was the slow recovery that
was the culprit). For the first time in
years I’m relying on diet and exercise (next section) to deal with it.

For a man in Paris,
it’s nearly essential to be slim. For
one thing, it’s difficult to buy clothing.
French fashions are simply designed with a slimmer man in mind and even
if you get larger sizes, you’ll look like 10 pounds of mud in a five pound
bag. This is one city where being a
woman is advantageous.

My Paris
diet was acceptable and I’ll return to that soon, but it’s no match for the
extra weight. To remind you of the Paris
diet rules: 1) Only eat food that you really like, 2) only eat when you are
hungry and 3) spend more than 2 hours at any large meal and be sure it is with
friends or family. I lost a pound a week
this way and got into great shape… but that was pre sickness.

My post-illness
diet is a sort of an Atkins thing. High
protein and fat with no carbs. That
means NO Bonne Maman chocolate and caramel tartelettes! It also means cutting back on champagne! Lastly, it means that I will be a very happy
man when this diet is over and I can return to my Paris diet.

Sport: I
have been an athlete, but I would not call myself that right now. Fencing continues for me. It’s getting more and more exciting as the
steps are becoming more natural and we are starting to hit one another with
more enthusiasm. Here are a few fencing observations:

It was
suggested that it might be time to step up my practicing to twice a week. One of my fellow students said “How else will
you learn?” I don’t know. I’ll give this
extra day a try next week and let you all know how it goes.

Without considerable (any) out of class exercise, I can feel my muscles
tightening and quickening in the anticipation of the next class. I’m certain that my brain is feeding my
muscles with the information that they are going to have to act quickly… and
the muscles are repairing. I’m just
simply… stronger and faster.

Fencing is
FAR more physical than I ever would have guessed. Fencing to the first 5 points takes about (a
guess) 5 minutes. The energy I’ve been
expending would exceed a 3km (2 mile) run.
Every muscle gets used and every pore sweats. Your eyeball muscles strain to attack your
opponent…

A landscape by the master samurai Miyamoto Musashi.
Note the long and deliberate brush strokes of a swordsman.

Art: I started art class last
Thursday. I thought it was a beginner’s
class because, I am a beginner. Perhaps
I didn’t understand the French on the website properly, but for 30 extra Euros
or so a semester my class is a “live” class, meaning that there will be
models. Here’s what I observed:

When I got
to my first class, a nude model was already posing and there were about 7 other
students furiously sketching. I thought
that perhaps after learning to draw apples and shit for a couple of months, we’d
start with the live models near the end of the semester. Reality check!

Since I don’t know how to draw (hence the classes), I nervously sat down and
began to sketch in the manner of the person next to me. Disaster.
I tried my own way.
Disaster. The instructor gave me
some tips. Disaster. Disaster. Disaster.

During the break, I felt that I had already been identified as the classes’
retarded monkey, though I struck up a Frenglish conversation with one or two
people. The topic of fencing came up,
however, and my instructor exclaimed that he’d always wanted to try out the
sport. I gave a small demonstration of a
couple of fencing moves to light applause and class resumed.

After the
demonstration, I thought of my mentor, Musashi.
I cleared my mind and thought of the relationship between fencing and
art. The points in space, the
perspective, the attack… and the result is below. Perhaps there is hope. Can’t wait ‘til next week.

I call this "Nude Reclining - 15th Try".

Vampires: I haven’t reported on vampires lately since
there has been low activity. I think
they prefer the cooler weather. I’m sure
the city’s vampire hunters prefer it as well.
On the hottest days I’ve seen in Paris so far, I’ve witnessed vampire
hunters (heading for a meeting?) heading through Chatelet in full leathers. They wear thick leather to protect themselves
from an opportunistic bite should a vampire get too close. If you want to see a vampire hunter for
yourself, I recommend a café near Les Halles.
Order up some champagne and wait.
You’ll see them.